Taang Month '14
by Aria's Locket
Summary: Kicking off the month of April with 30 whole days of everyone's two adorable sweethearts. 30-day prompts created by aanglish on Tumblr. AxT.
1. Rejection

**Title: **Taang Month '14

**Summary: **Kicking off the month of April with 30 whole days of everyone's two adorable sweethearts. 30-day prompts created by aanglish on Tumblr. AxT.

**A/N: **So two cool things! 1) I finally set up a Tumblr! I think I figured it all out (for the most part). Url is the same as my penname (ariaslocket . tumblr . com), so if any of you are on Tumblr, feel free to follow me. I might post really short drabbles there that I don't feel like dragging over to Fanfiction (and other surprises!)

2) Tumblr user **aanglish** is starting this cool thing called Taang Month for the whole month of April. So I figured why not? Should be fun! There's one prompt everyday for the next thirty days, and I'll try my best to keep up and do daily updates (I will! This I swear!) But if you want to take a look at the prompts, head over to aanglish's tumblr. I'll be posting on my page as well. Oh, and think about doing some art or fanfiction! The prompts are really great! Thanks to the anon who tipped me off about it!

**Disclaimer:** Mm…nope.

**OOO**

_Day 1:_ Rejection

…

_College AU_

**OOO**

At first, she thought that Aang was just another one of those typical college assholes who just wanted a quick one-off with a pretty girl.

After all, that's all she had been running into lately. Guys who had befriended her the first weeks of school and were actually really sweet and interesting people until they decided to ask her out. Then all of the 'friend zoning bitch' speeches came out, and their personalities switched out and pounced just as quick as Toph's right hooks when their mouths got a little too dirty for her tastes. But that was to be expected. They wanted a girl who wanted to be casual. Toph wasn't that. And she resigned herself to the fact that she probably wasn't going to find anyone decent at this university after all. Oh well. Life went on.

That's why it was way too easy to shoot Aang down when he eventually asked her out to lunch. She already had her punching arm ready.

Except that Aang took it far too well. In fact, he didn't seem fazed by her blatant refusal at all. He shrugged, understood that she was probably busy, and said he'd see her in Philosophy.

Not what she was expecting, but it didn't matter. As long as he bit the dust, Toph could care less if he fell to his feet in sorrow and started writing her love sonnets. That was the end of it.

But Toph really wished that someone had told her that Aang was one persistent guy.

The next morning, she had stumbled into her Philosophy lecture after sleeping through her alarm clock. She burst into the hall in her pajama pants and a sweatshirt that she grabbed without looking, and her bun couldn't have looked any sloppier. Accepting that it was a start to a terrible day, Toph scanned the packed hall, hoping that she wouldn't have to sit on the windowsills towards the back of the room where the other students who didn't have seats sat.

Just before she was about to resign herself to a horrible spot, she saw a hand waving out of the corner of her eye. Sure enough, it was Aang, sitting in the middle of the right half of the hall waving her over to where he was sitting. His bag was taking up the seat next to him, and she had suddenly realized that he had actually saved her a seat. It was strange, because it was the kind of thing she expected from Katara who knew her better than anyone else on this campus. Not from a boy whom she had only spoken to casually in the middle of lecture about how absolutely boring their professor was.

As weird as it all was, a seat was better than no seat. So she shimmied through the row past other students and sat down next to the bright-eyed boy.

She pulled out a notebook and leaned her head towards his. "Thanks," she whispered with a small smile. Her vision was horrible, and even with contacts she needed to sit close to the front just to see whatever was written on the board.

Aang returned with a larger smile and pulled a power bar out of his bag and placed it on her desk. "Here. You probably skipped breakfast. And you're welcome." And nothing else was said. Aang turned back to the lecture and took notes until the class had ended. Toph didn't know what to say in response to the kind gesture, so she did the same.

Once all their books were collected and the rest of the students were filing out, Aang turned to her and asked, "Do you want to grab a bite of breakfast? I didn't eat much myself, and a power bar doesn't seem like it'll hold you."

_Seriously?_ Toph exclaimed inwardly. _He's asking me out again? I already told him no!_

"Look," Toph sighed, trying to avoid looking into those gray eyes of his as she came up with a quick lie. "I have another class in like ten minutes and I've gotta run. Sorry," she added lamely at the end, even though she sort of regretted it afterwards. Why was she apologizing? He was the one who couldn't take a hint.

Aang shook his head and adjusted the strap to his bag. "No, I understand. Don't worry about it. I don't want to make you late. I'll see you around I guess!" And after waving jovially over his shoulder, he was gone. No rude words. No hatred. No cursing. Just a _I'll see you around!_

Toph stood there with her bag hanging from her elbow, waiting for her head to make sense of what just happened before whispering into the quiet lecture hall, "What the hell is his problem?"

A couple of days later, Toph stood in her dorm room for the rest of the day after waking up with a migraine that drilled holes into her temples every time a loud noise or bright light entered her room. She had insisted to her roommate Katara that she was fine and just needed a good rest, but she sort of wished that she had told Katara to stop by the pharmacy and get her some painkillers. She didn't think she was going to get through the day with her head pounding the way it was. Besides cowering under her covers in the dark, Toph didn't know what else to do to make the pain go away.

After suffering for an entire hour, a gentle knock on her door got her attention, and Toph secretly prayed that it was Katara so that the girl could run and get her some painkillers.

But, no. It was Aang, smiling brightly with dimples and all, holding a plastic shopping bag in his hand.

"Hey," Aang said casually. "Um, Katara's in Chem lab with me and she told me that you had a migraine this morning. I was going to the store anyway, so I thought you might want these." He held out the bag for her, and Toph was in too much shock to do anything but take the offered gift. Sure enough, inside were two bottles of water, a bottle of Advil, and some snacks in case she got hungry.

Toph couldn't remember the last time a friend had personally come to her house or to her room bearing medicine and food. Usually, she handled that stuff by herself, so used to having to take care of her own problems alone. But, here was this boy who didn't have any obligation to be nice to her after she rejected him twice bringing her things to make sure she was feeling better.

She immediately felt like a burden. "You didn't have to do that."

"I know," Aang said simply. "But I did anyway." And damn it all if that sentence alone didn't speak volumes.

Toph didn't respond, so Aang filled the silence once more. "I'd ask you to have lunch with me, but I think you should rest and sleep that off. I'll see you later, alright?" Toph didn't do much else but wave him off as he walked down the hallway and jogged down the stairs, leaving Toph feeling a lot of different emotions all at once, not all of them bad.

It was after she had showed up to her Philosophy lecture again, sat in the seat that Aang had saved for her, and accepted the notes that he copied for her when she was suffering with a migraine yesterday that Toph realized that maybe she was reading this guy all wrong. So she went to Katara.

"You know, I usually don't condone Facebook stalking," Katara commented as she looked over Toph's shoulder. "But I've seen the way he stares at you. He's a great guy, Toph. Really. An absolute sweetheart."

Katara was the only resource that Toph had left. Katara was Facebook friends with most of the freshman class already—how she had managed that, Toph didn't want to know—and the only way that Toph figured that she could properly observe Aang without letting him know that she was actively doing so was unfortunately through sifting through months worth of statuses and looking through his albums.

There was nothing suspicious about anything she saw there, except that Aang didn't give off the impression of a self absorbed womanizer college stud who was just extremely desperate to hook up with Toph for a few times before moving onto the next defenseless college girl. There was something very…genine about him. Of course that was hard to accurately tell by just stalking—erm, _researching_ him—on the Internet, but something about all the photos he had of his huge white dog and his father back at home, all of his friends at high school, and even all the twelve year olds he counseled at a summer camp a year ago just gave Toph the impression that Aang exuded a happiness and enthusiasm that was absolutely infectious.

"What if he's not, though?" Toph questioned honestly, being unable to resist the small smile at the sight of Aang's dorky selfie with the alma mater statue that he probably took on the first day of college. "People can be fake."

Katara nodded and patted her shoulder. "Yeah, they can. But you're not going to find that out for sure without sticking your head out a little. I mean, how are you expecting to find anyone worth it if you just say no to everyone for fear they'll be like everyone else you've met?"

"Ugh," Toph groaned in disgust. "Go write all that sentimental crap in your diary before you make me throw up."

"Look you have been grouching up the atmosphere with your pessimism." Katara flicked Toph's forehead. "Cheer up a little, will you? Not every guy is out to get you. You can afford to trust someone for a change."

Toph scrolled further down Aang's wall. "Famous last words," she muttered quietly.

Still, it wasn't a _terrible_ thought.

For three days after, Toph couldn't really put a finger on what she thought of him. Usually, when a girl turned a guy down that many times, he gave up trying and just left her to her own devices. But Aang's constant attention despite her reluctance to say yes to any of his offers for dates or hanging out or whatever it was he wanted was…nice. It felt nice. That's all she would admit to, because she couldn't explain this desire to run away scared and also take Katara's advice: stop moping and taking a chance for once.

Toph was sitting out on the steps of the library, typing away at her laptop when she felt a bag plop down next to her and a body sit to her left, one step down from where she was sitting. Toph smirked while she kept writing her essay, not needing to look up to know whom it was. "How do you keep finding me, huh?"

"Well, you stand out," Aang said simply.

Toph snorted and typed out a few lines of prose, waiting for the gratuitous flirting. "What does that mean?"

"Don't know if you've noticed, but you kind of scare people with the way you carry yourself," Aang admitted.

Toph snapped her head at him. "Wait, what?"

Aang laughed at her reaction and leaned his elbows on the step behind him. "It's nothing bad, per se. But you're very bold. The way you walk with your head in the air, the way you talk to people and look right at them, and all that sarcasm. It's a little intimidating. They're afraid you'll bite their head off. Or, you know…punch them across the face."

Toph scowled at the latter half of the sentence. "You heard about that?"

"Who _didn't_ hear about that?" Aang remarked sarcastically. "You made a football player fall to his knees, and you were literally half his size. This campus isn't that big. Everyone was bound to find out about it."

Well, he was right there. To be fair, she wasn't very forgiving with her blows. She probably did frighten most of the freshman class with that display. Not that she cared all that much. Toph was used to being accused of being rough around the edges and unapproachable. It was her thing, and she'd been going with it since middle school. She wasn't about to change it to get approval. That wasn't the kind of attention she wanted.

Of course, a part of her always wondered what she had to do to get a guy to see her as a person they wanted to get to know and not a person they wanted to use as a means to an end. Either people looked at her superficially and pined after her like a pervert, or people ran away from her scared. Some impressions she could make. Aang was one of very few people who actually tolerated her thorny personality for this long and made spending time together with him…pleasant. That couldn't be ignored, no matter how much it shocked her.

Wondering if she should just keep her mouth shut and not bother asking dumb questions, Toph decided to go for it anyway. "So why are _you_ approaching me?"

Aang sighed and stared up at the sky, staring at the yellow and orange leaves that notoriously littered the steps of the library at this time of the year. Toph caught herself staring and couldn't help but think that the colors suited him. "That kind of thing doesn't scare me," he finally told her with a noncommittal shrug.

It wasn't much at all. No romantic soliloquys, no corny gushing descriptions on how amazing and unique and interesting she was, and no getting down one knee and making a spectacle over his fascination with her. But somehow it wrapped up everything that he was perfectly. He wasn't afraid. Not of her, not of rejection, and not of taking a little wager with people who seemed to really matter. Surely if he could do that, she could take the challenge and do the same right.

Toph bit her lip and closed her laptop. "Um…" she hesitated. "I was, uh…going to get a sandwich before class. You can tag along if you want."

Aang didn't answer right away, instead choosing to smile up at the sky and keep his eyes trained away from her. "Is this the part where we switch scripts and I say no?"

Toph scowled and nudged his shoulder roughly. "You better not!"

But Toph was pleasantly surprised when Aang turned to stare at her with those wonderful eyes of his as he grabbed her hand and pressed a kiss against her knuckles. Warmth spread all through her arm, and she couldn't stop herself from smiling back at him when he said, "Sure. I'd love to."

**OOO**

**A/N: **Give me a bit to get back into the swing of writing for these guys. I'm a little rusty and jaded from school. Hopefully the daily exercise will keep me sharp. Let me know what you guys think!


	2. Fight

**A/N: **Double post because I fell asleep in the library yesterday and woke up this morning and forgot to post my story...and submit my homework. But enough about that.

**OOO**

_Day 2: _Fight

…

_Canon Universe_

**OOO**

The bartender leaned towards Aang, wrinkling his brow worriedly. "…is she with you?"

Aang dropped his face into his hand. "Yeah. Unfortunately." Aang tapped the counter, and the bartender immediately filled his cup up to the brim with water.

"You're not gonna swoop in there and get her away from that guy?" the bartender asked.

Aang tipped his head back and took a drink of his water, trying not to fall into a drunken state that tended to start these kinds of messes. "I've learned it's better to just let her do her thing. Trust me."

The bartender didn't look convinced, but at that moment, Aang saw Toph plant her hands firmly into another guy's chest and shove him backwards into one of the tables in the pub. The man—probably only a little older than her—shouted in pain as the edge connected right into the lower part of his spine. Glasses were sent tumbling to the ground as he tried to steady himself on the table. Toph, in the meanwhile, was laughing boisterously.

"Aw," she mocked. "Did I push you too hard? I'm sorry, I guess little girls really don't know their strength."

The man glared. "You," he began, slurring over his words. "You've got some nerve trying to screw around with me."

"Well, I can say the same for you, jerk," Toph countered. "You can't seriously think that I'm not going to completely bury you under my foot for trying to feel me up in the middle of the damn bar."

"Oh please," the man shouted back, standing carefully to his feet. "I'm not listenin' to a crippled little brat mouth off to me about what I can and can't do. I wanna cop a feel, I can freakin' do it, alright?"

_Oh shit_, Aang bemoaned in his head. Those were two things that Toph didn't like to be called: crippled and bratty. And this person managed both in the same sentence. He was a goner. No use trying to interfere now. Aang knew what a tensed up and irritated Toph looked like, and he could practically see the veins in her hands and temples throbbing at the prospect of putting this guy down like an alley cat.

Aang knew he was the epitome of peace and nonviolence and was meant to be the keeper of order in the world, but there were a handful of things that Aang didn't like getting involved in. Toph and her bar fights were one of them. Especially when there was Earthbending involved, and judging by the fact that the guy was currently buried in a pile of rubble in the corner of the room, Aang figured he was right in his assessment.

"My _place!_" the bartender shouted in anger. "You all better be paying for those damages!"

Aang put a hand on the table and reassured the irate man. "Don't worry. I'll Earthbend everything back to the way it was and compensate you once they're done. It's best not to get in the middle of things."

The bartender was horrified. "Kid, she's trashing my place."

"Yeah, but when she's this angry and already Earthbending, you getting involved is just going to make her more upset. She can get kinda dangerous." Understatement of the century.

"She your girlfriend or something?"

Aang shook his head and actually laughed a little. "No. But that would be something, wouldn't it?"

The bartender's next statement was interrupted when the young man Toph was fighting with—oh hey, he can Earthbend too—decided to strike a blow into Toph's gut and send her reeling into the other wall across the bar, effectively causing double the damage as before. Toph quickly got up to her feet, brushing dust out of her hair and growling under her breath.

"Oh man…" Aang sighed. Now things were going to get bad.

It didn't seem like the panicked man behind the counter could take much of this fighting anymore. "Alright, that's it. I'm going in there!"

"I really wouldn't," Aang warned.

The young man came hurling over in the direction of the bar. Aang calmly switched to the next stool before the man came barreling straight into the wooden seats and slammed and back of his head against the bar with such force that Aang was pretty sure he felt it from where he was sitting. A couple of bottles of wine and liquor came tumbling down from the shelves whilst the bartender scrambled to catch as many of them as he could before they all fell to the ground.

"That's it you little runt!" the young man shouted.

"Try and hit me one more time and see what happens," Toph shouted back with a venomous snarl. "I'll freakin' knock you out so hard, your grandchildren are gonna feel it!"

As horrible as the situation was, Aang couldn't decide whether he was annoyed, embarrassed, or amused. Toph liked hanging out at pubs like this because they were cozy and had decent food. But sometimes, she ran into the wrong person, said the wrong thing, or in this case tended to overreact and cause property damage. The amount of times that Aang had to calm the girl down, pay off the owners of the bars they destroyed, and convince the irate girl to help him clean up the mess were getting hard to keep track off.

Plus she never let him get involved, either. Last time he suggested to calm the fight down for her and allow her to calmly leave, it turned into a whole shouting match with him and a fistfight with an Earthbending girl who was getting too catty. After trial and error, Aang learned to kick back and wait to see who lost and deal with the mess later.

Well. It wasn't too bad at least. Maybe when he was helping her get home and clean up her scratches, she'll finally let him take her to his home to play some Pai Sho. Now that he taught her how to play and how all the tiles felt, she was getting good. He wanted a rematch. Plus maybe they could finally break out that new ginseng tea they had bought yesterday.

Another crash sounded as the young man went barreling through a group of tables, ignoring the bartender whose attempts at stopping the brawl were futile. Aang turned behind the counter and waved over another worker.

"Another cup of water please?"


	3. Regret

**OOO**

_Day 3: _Regret

…

_Canon Universe _

**OOO**

Toph sometimes wished she had never left her parents.

At the time, the decision wasn't difficult to make. In fact, it was the _only_ decision she could make. She had to leave. She had to go outside and get a taste of the freedom she had dreamed about and help her new friends where she could. Leaving her family to worry was an unfortunate side effect, but it was too late in the game to rectify it. Her problems had suddenly become larger than just figuring out how she was going to sneak out of the house that night. There were lives on the line. Nations to save. Wars to end.

It was a naïve hope that things would be just as they were before when she got home if not better. Her parents weren't angry or upset or horrified. When they opened their door to reveal her, neither of them could keep their tears at bay or could stop smoothing out her hair or clutching her shoulders, just to convince themselves that she was real. There was no yelling and no reprimanding that first night. Just a meal, together as a family, just like it was meant to be.

But things were never the same after that, and they probably weren't going to be. Her father was distant and her mother was clingy. On her father's half, it was probably because he didn't know what to think of his daughter anymore: the daughter that lied, ran away with the Avatar, Earthbended better than anyone he had ever seen in his life, and required free reign to be loose and spontaneous rather than tight and reserved. He probably wasn't going to get used to that for a while. He must have thought he was living with a stranger.

Her mother was more attached to her daughter than she had ever been in her life. She was afraid of losing her again, probably. It was why she always came to Toph's room and said goodnight, had all her meals with her including short tea breaks, and sat in the gardens to watch her daughter practice with a worried lip. One blink or one glance away, and that woman thought that Toph would vanish into thin air. Toph wondered what kind of people she left behind and came back to.

"They have to adjust to you," Aang told her later on. "They were without you for nearly a year. And you placed a bombshell on them. Not that I helped, but…"

"I understand that, but when will it end?" Toph questioned in exasperation. "There's only so much I can take when my parents either can't stand to look at me or can't stand to be without me. I don't want to say it's worse than it was before I left, but it's definitely getting to be too much."

"There's no way of knowing that for sure," Aang responded knowingly. "When people's lives are uprooted, there's a lot you have to fix and a lot that you have to become desensitized to. Otherwise you won't survive. They haven't quite gotten there yet."

When she was feeling particularly overwhelmed and lost, Toph always asked him if she should have just stayed. If she shouldn't have bothered and just kept living the comforting life her parents wanted just so that she could get to keep them and not have to readjust to them like they were an adopted family. But Aang always responded in the same way.

"There's no use regretting things that have already happened," Aang replied sagely, his eyes strangely empty. "There's only time for looking forward and making sure that the things you do in the future aren't mistakes you'll regret later on."

Aang had everything figured out. He knew exactly how to navigate the world he lived in and also knew how to make the best out of the emotional funks he always found himself in. Growing up did that to you, but Toph liked to think that Aang was especially perceptive with these matters. It's why she always came to him so much and why she valued what he had to say.

Because Aang had his own regrets that he needed to sift through, his own skeletons in the closet that he wished he could destroy and pretend weren't there. With the amount of times that Aang told her the story of how he was trapped in the iceberg, she was surprised she wasn't crushed by Aang's guilt permeating the story.

"There are so many things I could have avoided," Aang always whispered to her one night when his resolve crumbled in a frightening display. "I could have trained to become the Avatar earlier. I would have mastered all the elements and maybe stopped all of that mayhem from starting in the first place. I could have saved the world long before that war started if I had just stopped being so selfish and just did what I had to do. Sometimes, you learn your lessons too late."

Toph stopped him. "You can't keep blaming yourself for that. You made a mistake but you fixed it. Just like I made a mistake, and I'm fixing it." Surely if she was taking the time to be there for her parents, Aang could learn to forgive himself a little.

"Still," he muttered. "You can't help but wonder what things would be like if you could take it all back."

Aang tried to remain positive. He did. And she was forever thankful for that. But there were days when all the optimism was just a sheer cover that couldn't keep all the dark thoughts and insecurities from seeping through and showing. It was a hard hurdle to jump over. It was hard to help him when she couldn't even completely help herself. And she told him this when she finally left her house after two months of trying to assimilate herself back into a family she didn't recognize.

"Well, I'm no expert," Aang warned, "but the biggest difference I see between then and now is that we're not alone. That's got to count for something."

Toph turned to him and saw him smiling through all of the unsure feelings he had, and she wondered if she could have that nerve to smile through the things that bothered her most.

Instead, Toph nudged him lightly and turned her head away from him. "You're such a dorky little optimist."

Aang chuckled. "Yeah. But you're grateful for it."

She smirked into her hair so that he couldn't' see. "If you say so."

**OOO**

**A/N:** I kinda don't like this one. I was feeling down today, and I think it affected my writing. Sorry about that ^^;


	4. Forgiveness

**OOO**

_Day 4_: Forgiveness

…

_Canon Universe_

**OOO**

Katara gaped and tried to find her calm voice. "What _happened_!?"

Toph rolled her eyes. "Talk to this lummox over here."

"Toph, I said I was _sor—!_"

"Spirits, your ankle is so swollen," Katara exclaimed worriedly, rushing over and kneeling. She picked up the blind girl's foot and started inspecting it, slowly raising it at different levels while Toph winced above her. "Sweetie, this looks dislocated! Look how it's twisted. What did you do?"

The Earthbender exaggeratedly nudged Aang's arm. "Twinkle Toes, would you like to inform Sugar Queen of your recent failings?"

Aang looked down at his feet, nervously clutching Toph's hand that he had flung over his shoulder when he helped her limp back to the front of the temple. "I mean…I messed up my stances today…"

"The idiot sends an airborne boulder while I'm coming up from under the ground, so of _course_ because I can't _see—_!"

"I thought you'd come up sooner!" Aang panicked out of guilt. "You usually hear those coming! Because, you know, you're amazing, and wonderful, and the best Earthbending teacher I've ever had, and you're smart, and—"

"Oh, shut up. I'm mad at you," Toph frowned.

Katata walked around Toph's other side and grabbed Toph's other arm. "Okay. You two stop bickering please. Toph, we need to lay you down."

Toph grumbled under her breath, but allowed Katara to grab her other arm. "You're in for _so_ much groveling after this."

Well, that much Aang knew. After having to hold Toph down while Katara snapped Toph's ankle into place—"We have to reset it before I heal it" she informed the younger girl regrettably—Toph's gaze took on a quality that was nothing short of homicidal. She wasn't allowed to put pressure on the foot for the next two days, which left her inactive, vulnerable, and livid. Because it was Aang's fault, even though his constant apologies were fired at rapid succession, nothing seemed to appease her. At this rate, Aang was going to need to start writing a will and digging a grave for himself, because the minute Toph was up and around again, he was going to get it. Terribly.

You know, because Toph didn't care about destroying the Airbender gene pool. She just cared about seeing him in just as much pain as she was.

He needed to think of a way to appease her, and quick.

The first thing that he could think of was being her personal lap dog. It was the least he could do considering the fact that she couldn't really walk. So for the rest of the day after their failed training session, Aang offered to carry Toph piggyback to wherever she wanted to go—and boy did she abuse that. He had her cart her around to random rooms in the temple—a very _large_ temple—just so she could sit there, kick a few pebbles around and demand to be taken back. But he couldn't complain. She had all the power. He even spooned out her food for her and took care of her dishes because Aang valued his life that much.

But despite all the acts of kindness, Toph still looked like she was plotting something devious. Every time he'd offer to carry her or bring her what she needed, she accepted with a frigid nod and didn't even acknowledge his presence at all. No words aside from orders. No smiles. Nothing. She wasn't even this mean to Zuko, and he had burned _both_ her feet.

Wait a minute…that might work.

The next day, Zuko pulled Aang out of bed at the break of dawn—Firebending training was no joke—and carted him over to the courtyard that they frequently practiced in. But before Zuko began to rattle off the tedious drills Aang was going to be doing that morning, Aang interrupted him with an odd question.

"How did you get Toph to forgive you for the burning her feet thing?"

Zuko raised a brow as he shucked off his shirt and threw it towards the stairs. "Pardon?"

"You know," he tried again. "You burned her feet, and she was livid. But, now the two of you are perfectly pleasant with each other. How'd you do it?"

Realizing that they weren't going to start training anytime soon, Zuko sighed and walked over to the steps leading out of the courtyard that Katara usually occupied when she was being invasive and protective and watching their training sessions like a hawk. "Does this have anything to do with the fact that you broke Toph's ankle yesterday?"

"It was an _accident!_" Aang bemoaned with volume. "I didn't know she would come up that fast and I was so into the fight that I just—"

"Hey, hey, hey," Zuko interjected quickly. "It's fine. I was kidding. You need to calm down, or you're going to drive yourself sparse."

Aang frowned bitterly. "This coming from the person born from a race of people known for their tempers."

Zuko scowled in return. "Ha ha. Funny."

"Seriously though," Aang asked desperately. "I'm at a loss. I was practically waiting on her all day yesterday, I apologized a million times, but she won't even take the time to yell at me anymore. I mean, how the heck do I follow this up?"

The Firebender leaned backwards and stared up at the sky. "You're really torn up about this, aren't you?"

"She's going to kill me!" Aang panicked. "I have to figure out a way to get her to forgive me otherwise there's no telling what she'll do when she's better."

Zuko shook his head and smirked wryly. "Considering the fact that I think she likes you too much for that, I doubt you have to worry about harm to yourself. Besides, you're going about this all wrong."

Aang hummed in confusion. "What do you mean? I can't think of any other way to apologize."

"Well, from the little time I've been a part of your group, I can confidently say that your little Earthbender is a hard nut to crack. Very stubborn. Very demanding."

Aang pulled his knees up to his chest and buried his face in his knees, prepared to drown in his sorrows. "Don't I know it."

"Look," Zuko began. "I can tell you how I got her to forgive me, but it's not going to work with you, because we're different people, and she sees us differently."

Aang nodded. "Okay…"

"She said she knew off the bat that it was an accident," Zuko started to explain. "I had to do the whole waiting around on her thing too. But it worked, because in exchange for her going against all her friends to defend someone who wound up hurting her, I had to swallow my pride and embarrass myself in exchange. I put out my head just as much as she did, so we evened it all out."

The monk decided that that made a lot of sense. But something still wasn't right. "So then what did I betray that I have to make up for? It wasn't my fault! I didn't mean it!"

"Neither did I," Zuko shrugged. "But that doesn't make what you did any less wrong. You still have to realize the slight. But like I said, it's different for you."

"Well, how is it different?" Aang asked in exasperation.

Zuko smiled this time and turned his head knowingly towards Aang. "I already told you. She likes you."

"Well, of course she likes me. I mean we're friends. We all like each other," Aang reasoned.

"No, you dunderhead," Zuko replied with an eye roll. "I mean she _likes_ you."

"Yes, I heard what you said. But, I already told you that we all—_oh!"_

Zuko actually chuckled and nodded his head resolutely. "Yeah. It's kind of like if you went and burned me during training. You're the student, yet you caught her off guard. You embarrassed her. That's why waiting on her and apologizing isn't going to do much, because that's the kind of thing that you'd do without thinking about it. It's not a stretch for you to apologize in that way. She's still mortified."

Aang was only half paying attention the entire speech. His face was flushed in embarrassment. "…wait, she _likes_ me?"

"Yes, Aang. Do keep up."

The younger boy shook his head, trying to dispel the nonsensical thoughts that were suddenly building up. "W-Wait, how do you know she likes me? She told _you_?"

"She didn't have to," Zuko said knowingly. "I'm just very observant. She's always sitting next to you, always joking around with you, always trying to impress you, and always interested in hearing what you have to say even though she does a damn of a good job of not making it obvious to you. And then of course, you go and humiliate her. Of course she's upset with you."

Okay, that definitely made a lot of sense. Toph wasn't the type to look hurt or visibly embarrassed. All negative and weak displays of emotion were always translated and outwardly displayed as anger and contempt. It was how the younger girl was wired. So of course the only way that he was going to get through to her was…

Aang's cheeks reddened. Oh Spirits, he didn't think he'd be able to do it. The nerve he'd have to work up.

Zuko smiled. "I'm guessing you figured out what you have to do."

Aang, in the meanwhile, was having an internal crisis. "But wait, I don't—"

"You're talking to me, remember?" Zuko reminded his student. "Judging by the way you were flushing when I told you she likes you, I already know how this is going to play out." Zuko stood up and brushed off his pants. "Now come on. Enough talking. You have to start your drills and I don't need you distracted."

Of course, it was too late for that. Aang was totally out of it for the rest of the day, even when he went to bed that night. But suddenly, what Zuko was saying made a lot of sense, even though the very thought or replaying that conversation made him all embarrassed and his nerves stared to speed up his heart in a way that made it impossible to go to sleep. Why this was happening he wasn't sure, but all he knew was that this entire scenario regarding Toph's injury just became a hell of a lot more mortifying than it needed to be. Aang didn't think it was possible, but perhaps this meant something in the grander scheme of things. Gyatso always told him that sometimes you didn't realize inherent things about yourself until someone else forces you to look it straight in the eye.

Aang was starting to find this extremely applicable.

So, resigned to the fact that this was probably the only honest and sincere thing he could do to make Toph forgive him, Aang decided that the next morning during breakfast was as good a time as any to clean the slate and simultaneously spill his heart out.

Once Katara had passed out everyone's plates and the entire camp was sitting down and enjoying a meal, Aang decided to stand up and walk across their little makeshift circle to Toph who was sitting with a frown on her face next to Zuko. When Aang finally stopped right in front of her, Toph scoffed and turned her head up at Aang.

"In case you were confused, I'm still not talking to you," she informed him with bitterness.

Aang nodded. "No, I expected that. But it's fine. I don't need you to say anything at the moment." And after collecting all of his nerves, he calmly leaned down, grabbed Toph's cheek, and kissed her straight on the lips in front of everyone in the temple, leaving the entire assembly completely lost for words.

The monk figured that Zuko was definitely right about Toph. Not only was Zuko knowingly smiling, but Toph could have easily pushed Aang away during the ten seconds that his lips remained attached to hers. She didn't. When Aang pulled away, Toph was still sitting there, her eyes blinking in shock and her cheeks flamed up worse than he had ever seen them.

Aang offered a meek smile. "I'm sorry for hurting your foot, Toph. And I'm sorry for embarrassing you. I'll never do it again, I promise."

And with that, Aang picked up his food, and walked out of the courtyard, deciding that he was done getting himself into compromising situations for the rest of the day. He wondered if that would be enough to please her and make up for whatever he had done. There was no telling with Toph. He might have just made matters worse.

But, if that kiss was for Toph what it was for Aang, he didn't think she'd mind the gesture. He certainly didn't.


	5. Acceptance

**OOO**

_Day 5_: Acceptance

…

_College AU Part 2_

**OOO**

"No, I won't do it."

"Toph, you are not seriously going to look me in the eye and tell me that the two of you aren't official."

"Ugh, _God!_ Don't say official, Katara. It sounds so…"

"…official?"

"What the hell did I say?"

"Okay. Actually though. I don't understand what your issue is. You guys have been dating for like three weeks. Exclusively dating, might I add. You want to explain to me what that is if it's not you guys being totally legit?"

"Don't say dating either!"

"Are you actually going to sit here and tell me you guys aren't dating?"

"We're not! We're just…mutually hanging out."

"…'mutually hanging out.' That is the biggest line of bullshit I have ever heard."

"That's what it is! If I'm having lunch, I call him and say, 'Hey, do you wanna have lunch?' and he says 'Yeah, totally!' and we go to lunch. And if there's a play he wants to see and he invites me, I go because, hey, why the hell not, and if I ever wanted him to come with me to a football game I'll invite him over too because what the hell, he's there we're friends and—"

"Okay. First, you are rambling like a maniac, which means you're lying out your teeth. And second, you could easily call me or Zuko if you wanted to have lunch with someone or invite them to a game. But no. You call Aang _consistently!_"

"…"

"Keep the excuses coming. I'm having fun ripping you to pieces."

"Look, me calling him to hang out doesn't mean we're dating."

"You guys kiss!"

"As friends!"

"Oh, bullshit as friends!"

"Friends can kiss!"

"I don't see the two of us making out at the moment, do you?"

"Sugar Queen, this is not the time to be acting out your college lesbian fantasy!"

"_Toph!_ We are _so_ not talking about that right now!"

"Good! Then the discussion is over! I'm going to bed."

"Oh, no you don't! You avoided the subject. I am not letting this rest until you admit that Aang is your—"

"_Don't say it!"_

"Why not? I honestly don't get it. Here you are hanging out with this amazing guy who actually adores you and everything that you do, and you don't want to put a serious label on it. He's probably running around telling his friends that the two of you are serious, so why can't you do the same?"

"Because!"

"Because why!?"

"Because it just doesn't make sense, alright? No one has ever shown this much interest in me. I've never dated like this before where the guy is actually…you know…being a gentleman. It just…seems suspicious. Like he's just playing me along until he gets what he wants, and then he'll just drop me like everyone else. That's how it always works out, Katara. And it's going to happen this time, I just know it."

"…"

"…"

"…"

"…well, aren't you going to say something, Sweetness?"

"…you are so insecure."

"Screw you! I can't believe you're—"

"Toph, Aang is head over heels for you! You have to see the way he looks at you and lights up when the two of you hang out. And don't forget that I actually know this guy well. He's perfect for you. He's exactly the kind of guy you need: someone to make you realize that you are not a doormat for people to step on just so that they can take what they want and leave. You're more than that, and the fact that you can't realize that by yourself is worrying enough. At the very least, let this guy show you that for himself."

"…"

"You know I'm right."

"…But, what if it screws up? Then I wind up getting smashed to the asphalt and left alone and broken. Especially if I'm the one who's more emotionally invested in this than he is. If…If I'm going to take this seriously, I don't want to go into it knowing that I might wind up getting thrown aside out of boredom after all my efforts. I'm not interested in getting spat on by people. That's why I prefer to be left alone."

"Toph, added to the fact that I don't think Aang is capable of casually throwing you aside like that, that's what a relationship is! You have to take a little risk. Yeah, it's terrifying and you're exposing yourself more than you probably have in your life, but that's what it's all about. Of course there's always the chance that it'll work out. But when it does work out, it's wonderful. And I really do think it's going to work out. I mean, don't you feel that with him?"

"…I mean, I don't know."

"What do you mean you don't know? You don't know how he makes you feel?"

"No, I do! I mean I love hanging out with him and he's funny and cool and always excited to hang out with me, but it's terrifying. I'm just not used to being at the center of someone's attention like this and it's off putting. I mean I'm trying, I am, but I just hate talking about all this relationship junk. It's too confusing and frustrating which is why I hate doing them in the first place. It's all these formalities! Dates, kissing, Valentine's Day, birthdays, introducing them to your friends, trusting each other enough that all this riskiness is worth it. I mean, come _on!_ Having a boyfriend shouldn't be this—"

"…"

"…fuck."

"I'm sorry. Having a _what?_"

"Shut up."

"You freakin' like him, and that's it! You don't accidently call a friend your boyfriend."

"Katara, I swear to God…"

"Toph has admitted that she has a boyfriend! A _boyfriend_! I'm so calling Suki and telling her you finally said it."

"Sugar Queen, get your gossipy little ass back here!"


	6. Truth

**OOO**

_Day 6: _Truth

…

_Canon Universe_

**OOO**

"Okay. Aang. You need to stop doing that."

But Aang couldn't help it. He had been fidgeting during the entire ride here and was constantly adjusting his robes, making sure that they weren't stained or wrinkled. This was extremely important, and he couldn't help but feel like he was going to screw this up for Toph somehow. Aang didn't function well under stress if the Day of Black Sun invasion wasn't enough of an indicator. He was about ready to panic and bolt.

"Toph…I really don't know about this."

Toph turned to Aang and sighed. "If you don't calm down, you're gonna have a heart attack. Your palpitations are giving me a headache."

"I'm sorry," Aang groaned. "But…I can't do this. I'm gonna mess this up. And then we're going to have to run away _again!_ And then they'll really hate me!"

Toph couldn't help but laugh at Aang's antics. Figures that the powerful and almighty Avatar would get scared and freak out over this. The poor thing couldn't calm down if there was a custard tart promised for his efforts. "Twinkles, it's _just_ meeting my parents."

"Yeah. Your parents who think I kidnapped you for close to three years! Oh Spirits, they're going chew me up and spit me out, we _so_ shouldn't have come here!"

"Okay, Aang," Toph said seriously, snapping her fingers and grabbing his shoulder to steady him. "Focus. First of all, they don't think you kidnapped me for three years. I've been writing to them, and I've explained everything to them. Besides, it's not like we're a secret. We're famous, and we're dating. We're practically under the scrutiny of everyone this side of the Earth Kingdom. This is just a formality. They want to meet you."

Aang sighed and let his shoulders slump. Talk about moment of truth. Them wanting to meet him could either ensure his surrogate adoption or his immediate execution. Of course he was going to be nervous about it. "You don't realize how ominous that sounds."

"You're the one making it sound ominous," Toph said with a scowl. "Look, I know things have been…itchy with them…"

"Yeah," Aang agreed sarcastically. "How could I forget them kicking me out of their house, sending kidnappers after you to cart you back in a metal cage—"

"For the last time Twinkle Toes," Toph said exasperatedly. "I cleared all that up! What is this all about?"

"This is a lot of pressure," Aang regarded her honestly. "You're not just Toph. You're Toph Bei Fong! Earth Kingdom heiress and Gaoling royalty. I mean, you've probably had a bunch of rich noble guys lined up to marry and court you since you were born, but instead you've just got me! A nomad with no home, no name, no family, no riches…I've got nothing to give you to impress them! I might as well be some homeless person you picked off the street."

The whole tirade hung in the air for a while, and Aang realized that he hadn't actually voiced these insecurities to Toph…ever. They had never come up. Being with Toph away from the stresses of her family and her noble obligations was like breathing. But standing in the garden of the Bei Fong Estate again made him think of all the things that he really wanted to forget about this relationship.

Toph remained silent and was digging the heels of her thin shoes that she was forced to wear for her parents into the dirt for lack of something else to do to fill up the awkward silence. "How long have you been thinking this?"

Aang waved off her question and shrugged his shoulders. "It's nothing. I'm being stupid."

"You're definitely being stupid, but this also is definitely not nothing," Toph frowned. "Do you seriously think you're not good enough for me?"

"No," Aang quickly amended. "It's not that…I just want to make a good impression on them. I want to keep you and be with you. I don't have the advantage of being in your social circle. So by that logic, I need to be amazing. And…I don't know how to do that for you."

He didn't know what to call Toph's impression. It was a mixture of confusion, disappointment, empathy, and frustration. Figures. She was always hard to read. But some compassion must have slipped through because she reached up and traced her fingers along the planes of his face before she found the smooth lines of his jaw. She laid her hand there and started rubbing her fingertips against his cheekbones. The gesture calmed him and he placed his larger hand over hers, grateful for the gesture of comfort.

Of course it was short lived before Toph reached up with her other hand and flicked Aang on the forehead, making him wince in pain and glare back at her. "Hey, what was that for?"

"Twinkle Toes, let me tell you something," Toph began. "All of this," Toph gestured around her to the lavish gardens, the towering estate, and the obvious wealth she was bred in, "I left it for you and my freedom. This all means nothing to me! I don't care about money or status or having someone with a title court me. Besides, give a guy a title and he thinks he's king of the world. No freaking thank you," Toph grimaced.

Aang nodded with a smile. "Yeah. You'd hate that."

"Exactly," Toph grinned back. "Look. You don't need to be anything more than what you are. I like you for everything you have, and despite the things you don't. And that's the truth." She stopped and looked up at him with a smirk. "Please don't make me pull out that mushy stuff again. It's exhausting."

That made Aang laugh heartily and he wrapped his arms around Toph's waist, suddenly overcome with the love that he felt for the girl on front of him. "Yeah, I agree. That would be weird. I mean, you? Romantic? Please…"

Toph punched him on the shoulder. "Oh shut up."

The slight sting in his shoulder didn't mean anything to him as he spun her around and faced them both towards the door. "So…your parents, huh?"

"Yup," Toph agreed with a weary sigh that showed she was just as anxious about this meeting as Aang was. "Just as a hint…my mother loves Earth Kingdom plays. So mention them. And my father likes talking politics, and always sides with the Earth King. So please talk it up."

Aang nodded. "That is helpful."

Toph rolled her eyes with a smile and patted Aang comfortingly on the arm. "Don't worry. They're gonna love you. I mean, you managed to charm me. My parents can't be nearly that difficult."


	7. Tranquil

**A/N: **Finals week has kind of been kicking my butt lately. So I'm super behind. But I will finish all of these prompts (even if it isn't by the end of the month).

**OOO**

_Day 7:_ Tranquil

…

_Canon Universe_

**OOO**

Toph didn't really like the Air Temples as much as people thought she did.

When the curving corridors, vaulted dayrooms, columned courtyards, and intricate shrines distracted her, she loved the place. Exploring with Teo and Haru turned out to be a lot more fun than she thought it would be, because only those two—and Aang of course—truly appreciated the beauty of the temple. Earthbenders always had an appreciation for good architecture, even if they weren't as perceptive as Toph was. It was amazing that the nomads could have possibly created stone structures and temples with such attention to detail. It still took Toph's breath away.

She just hated exploring alone.

For some reason, the spacious environment bothered her. Toph knew that these towering structures and echoing hallways were meant to be full of activity. When she was sitting in her lessons learning about the history and origins of all the different nations, her tutor mentioned that the nomads were a peaceful people who found freedom in disconnecting themselves from the complications of the world. Before, she imagined tranquility, peace, and introspection as the main facets of the nomads. They were a quiet people who honored spirituality over hope and desires and were all potent benders because of it.

But all Toph could imagine was thousands of Aang's running around the temple, riding around on air scooters, gliding through the hallways, and chattering along with the flying lemurs they probably carted around on their shoulders all day. Fun-loving and humorous. Sometimes, if Toph concentrated hard enough and let her imagination run for long enough, she could sometimes trick herself into thinking she was sitting in the epicenter of Air Nomad culture and could actually hear all their voices. But when snapped out of her reveries, she was alone. Everything was quiet, and it left her strangely empty and unsettled.

During the afternoons when training was over and dinner wasn't for hours, she'd lay out in the middle of a dayroom that let a lot of sunlight in to tan her skin and cool her clothes with the help of a slight breeze. Birds would twitter by the windows and little insects would scurry around on the ground, but other than that it was an unusually peaceful and quiet place to relax. It didn't make sense that this was the location of so much horror. Where did all the sadness go? The death? The emptiness? How could this temple still feel so calm?

"You know, it amazes me that you're able to find such good places for sightseeing."

Toph smiled. Nowadays, she couldn't even feel Aang coming anymore. He was the only one that could actually sneak up on her and surprise her. "Yeah, well, I've said over and over again that I'm not inept. Besides, I'm sure this whole temple is ideal for sightseeing."

"Yeah, but not like this," Aang commented, his steps only lightly padding along the stones. "To think that a day room this ruined can still be beautiful."

Toph didn't know about aesthetics, but she had to admit there was this strange pleasure in seeing so many different angles, structures, and shapes around her. There should have been something exciting about being here—like cracking open a new cave or walking through an abandoned ghost town. But there wasn't.

"Can I ask you something? And, you swear that you're not going to mention me being emotional and serious to anyone? You know. Unless you want a broken nose."

Toph could practically hear Aang's eye roll. "Well in that case, I guess I have no choice."

"Oh, no. You always have a choice. There's just an obviously stupid choice."

"Your question, Toph?"

Toph sighed deeply and let herself sink further into the ground. "Does being here bother you?"

"What do you mean?" Aang asked.

Toph wrinkled her nose. "This place isn't just abandoned. No one decided to stand up and walk away. Everyone here was…I mean…"

A beat passed and Toph could tell that Aang was frowning. "Ah. I get it."

For someone who wasn't very perceptive to others' emotions, Toph was quick to wince at bringing up something delicate in front of the last person who wanted to hear it. "Sorry. Stupid question."

"No, no. I wouldn't say it was stupid, per se…"

"Blunt?"

Aang laughed. "Well, I'm too used to you being blunt. I don't notice it anymore."

Toph scowled. "Gee, thanks."

Aang chuckled again and lifted his arms so that he was resting them behind his head and staring up at the ruined ceiling. "I made peace about my people a while ago. Denied. Got angry about. Got sad about it. I realized I had to accept it and let it go. So, it doesn't bother me as much as you'd think."

"Really?" Toph asked, a little surprised at Aang's maturity over the entire situation. His maturity had been surprising her a lot lately. "It bothers me."

"Why?"

"I can't explain it," Toph admitted. "I guess it's kind of like seeing you walk up to Katara and knock the bowl of food out of her hands and tell her she stinks at cooking."

Aang shifted and turned his head towards hers. "I'm…not really understanding the relationship."

"Exactly!" Toph exclaimed. "You're not supposed to understand it because it doesn't make sense. Seeing this temple this empty doesn't make sense. Considering everything that happened here it shouldn't be this calm."

"And that's a bad thing?"

"I dunno," Toph mumbled. "Isn't it?"

"It doesn't have to be," Aang commented. "I mean, don't you think that you deserve a break after a long day of training and running around?"

Toph snorted, quickly knowing the answer. "Of course. Dealing with you is practically a chore."

"Haha," Aang mocked. "But seriously, the temple works the same way. Don't you think after all that hardship…this temple deserves a little tranquility?"

Toph shrugged and rolled her shoulders that were aching from her position on the hard ground. "That's very hopeful. Even for you. Things just don't calm down after the storm. That happens beforehand. Haven't you ever heard the saying?"

Bad things just didn't disappear. It's why it was always so hard to calm down and have fun without having the reality of the war glaring down on her shoulders. It was impossible to forget about her parents, impossible to forget about the people they've lost on the way here, and definitely hard to forget about the nation that disappeared in this very room by fellow human beings. While Aang's optimism was a lovely thing during those times, it didn't make sense sometimes how accepting he could be of the garbage around him.

"You're looking at it all wrong," Aang explained. "Things don't necessarily fix themselves. I think no matter what, these temples are always going to be…missing something." Toph nodded, shifting her heel and feeling the dilapidated structures that were piled nearby that would probably never go back to the way they were.

"But," Aang continued. "That doesn't mean it can't heal. That something new, different, but equally as good can't come of it. That's the definition of rebuilding—making something new out of something destroyed."

Aang's optimism really filled Toph with more hope and confidence than she would ever tell him. It was dorky, and maybe to idealistic, but it made her feel better about everything she worried about, but didn't let everyone else know. He made her feel like everything was going to be okay. All this useless fighting and grapples for power would be over soon. If this temple could still be quiet and calm, surely the concepts carried over.

Toph shook her head and nudged Aang gently with her elbow. "You're too much of an optimist, Twinkle Toes. I don't know how you do it."


	8. Dreams

**OOO**

_Day 8: _Dreams

…

_Canon Universe_

**OOO**

Aang couldn't remember if it was Toph's idea, or Zuko's. They were both capable of coming up with outlandish ideas—Zuko because he was always up to challenging his student, and Toph because she was always into doing crazy things that kept Aang on his toes. Either way, when Toph and Aang planned a mutual visit to the Fire Palace, the three of them decided that it was due time for one of their good old Fire on Air on Earth spars.

It wound up happening in one of the courtyards in the back of the palace, since that was the only place that Zuko could think of where he practiced his Firebending and also didn't mind Toph ruining with her Earthbending. In a strange way, the three of them preferred this method of catching up over trying to question each other over dinner. Besides, everyone was usually too busy fighting to bother putting in an effort in leaving out details.

"You know," Zuko complained after Toph and Aang had effectively ganged up on him and left him on the ground panting and asking for a reprieve. "Asking about my wedding night in the middle of the fight was low."

Toph didn't seem to care much. "Hey, trash talking was not prohibited. Isn't that right, commissioner?"

"Trash talking is considered fair game by omission," Aang smirked. "We never made any rules prohibiting it."

Zuko looked up at the two younger benders in disbelief. "You two are horrid," he sighed. "Toph is a tyrant, but you enable her, Aang."

Aang took his discarded shirt and hung it around the back of his neck. "I wouldn't use the word enable. I just back up her nonsense with the appropriate logic. She actually has a fair bit of leverage on her side if she'd only think a little."

"Oh, bite me," Toph complained, wiping her forehead with the back of her hand. "I'm not an idiot."

Aang sat down next to Zuko who was still sitting on the ground trying to catch his breath. "I didn't say idiot. But you get rash and illogical when you're mad."

Toph scoffed and smacked Aang on the back of the head before she placed her legs across both Aang's and Zuko's laps and laid down on the ground. "Wow, Twinkle Toes. Personally, I'm offended. I can be perfectly level headed and logical."

Zuko couldn't help but laugh. "Level headed and logical are two things that don't fit with you. I don't buy it."

"Ah, shut up," Toph scowled. "For your information, my father has taught me plenty about keeping a calm and analytical head. I'm not the heiress to the Bei Fong Trading Company for nothing."

Aang blinked. "You never told me that."

Zuko nodded. "Yeah. I thought you were going to set up that Metalbending school."

"Eh, I'm keeping my options open," Toph said. "I'll probably open that school someday, but a part of me wouldn't mind taking over the company on the side."

Zuko nudged Aang. "Is this still your girlfriend or am I missing something?"

"Come off it," Toph frowned. "You guys never thought about what you'd do if you weren't the Avatar, or the Fire Prince? I always dreamed that if I wasn't a prodigy Earthbender, I'd take over my Dad's company."

"You a business mogul?" Zuko exclaimed.

Aang chuckled and nodded in agreement. "She's good with numbers and talking with people. She makes dealing with stuffy nobles over at the Earth Kingdom a breeze."

Toph grinned. "I was the Earth King's financial advisor for a while when the two of us stayed in Ba Sing Se last year."

Zuko rubbed his chin. "…seriously?"

"Mmhm," Toph confirmed. "Oh, you're welcome, by the way. The funding he was going to provide you for your reconstruction efforts was al over the place."

Zuko hummed in thought. "…would you mind looking at a few things for me tomorrow?"

"Alright," Toph agreed. "On _one_ condition! Admit that you would have totally become a musician if you weren't a Firebending prince."

Aang laughed outwardly on that and had to hold on to Toph's knees to keep himself from falling over. While they were travelling, Iroh had let slip that Zuko was pretty good on the tsungi horn. One night at the palace when the three of them decided that pulling out some drinks would be a good way to wrap up the night, Toph and Aang made sure to slip Zuko more alcohol than he realized until the prince drunkenly jumped up and played through an entire sonata. He was pretty good at it, much to their surprise.

"Shut up!" Zuko protested vehemently.

"Oh, come on Zuko," Aang grinned. "You were really good that night," he complimented earnestly. "Considering that you were drunk, you didn't make any mistakes. It was kind of amazing."

Zuko rolled his eyes and fell back on the ground. "My mother made me learn. She knew that I wasn't much of a fighter, so she figured I'd be good at the arts. The tsungi horn was the first thing she pushed at me."

"You're making yourself sound like an unwilling victim," Toph accused. "Admit it. Maybe you hated it at first, but you eventually liked it."

"Iroh told me you performed for your mother and him all the time," Aang added.

Zuko groaned and covered his eyes with his arm. "Okay, fine! I briefly had this delusion that I could…_maybe_…perform at Ember Island's Annual Music Festival and get scouted to be in an orchestra. But that was only for a couple of years!"

"You know," Aang mused. "You already pull off the formal look. You could definitely still do that if you wanted to."

"Yeah right," Zuko sighed. "I barely have enough time to spend time with my companions, let alone perform in a traveling troupe."

"Aw!" Toph bemoaned. "I would have liked to have seen you turn into a little performer! With a stage name and everything! Oh spirits, imagine if you got a bunch of fanmail! Girls sending you their delicates and everything, haha!" Toph dissolved into laughter and held up a hand. Aang couldn't help but return her high five and laugh along with her. It was a funny thought, especially since, out of their entire group, Zuko handled embarrassment the worst.

"Alright, alright," Zuko scowled. "Aang. If you weren't the Avatar, what would you have done with yourself?"

Aang looked up in thought and shrugged. "I was a decent baker. I made fruit tarts with Gyatso al the time."

"That is completely valid," Toph confirmed. "Have you tried his pastries? Ugh, they're amazing."

"You've had them?" Zuko asked.

"I trade her baked goods for back massages," Aang explained. "She's gotten better at them." Toph smiled and let Aang place a kiss on her forehead.

"So, would you have made a business out of it?" Zuko asked.

"I mean, probably," Aang pondered. "We always sold egg custard tarts for cheap at the temples. I could have sold them. But…I dunno…"

"What?" Toph and Zuko asked at once.

Aang scratched the back of his head. "I mean, For the first twelve years of my life, I wasn't the Avatar. I always had this…really stupid idea. It wouldn't have worked. But, I wanted to leave the temple."

"You couldn't leave?" Zuko asked.

"I mean, we could," Aang corrected. "But…families weren't our thing. The male and female temples visited each other for one week each year and…during that time you would find a partner. Someone you liked enough and trusted enough to…have a child with."

"I read about that," Zuko remembered. "The female Air Nomads sent their children to other temples to be brought up by nuns and monks. Right?"

"Exactly," Aang confirmed. "But after visiting other nations, that just didn't seem fair. I always dreamed of leaving the temple, and meeting someone that I could stay with. Have a family that I could keep. Be in a place where hoping for attachments to other people wasn't a bad thing." Aang turned to Toph and grabbed her hand, running his fingers over her knuckles. "But, I guess that doesn't count, because in a weird way I got what I wanted."

Toph was motionless for a moment before she grinned widely and reached up to give Aang a quick kiss. "You're a mushy dork, you know that?"

"You know it," Aang agreed with a smirk before returning the kiss.

Zuko shook his head, but couldn't help but smile at the sight of his two friends. "You two are a miracle. I don't how you guys do it."


	9. Climax

**OOO**

_Day 9_: Climax

…

_What I am officially calling the Best Friend AU_

_Oh, and apologies. I kinda took this prompt and made it dirty. _

_High T rating / low M rating for lots of suggestive talk ;-)_

**OOO**

"Okay, I am _not_ answering that in front of my brother, Toph!"

Toph groaned exaggeratedly. "He's macking on his own fiancé at the other end of the bar behind you, in case you haven't noticed." Rather enthusiastically, she might add. Ever since Sokka proposed to Suki, they haven't been able to keep their hands off of each other for longer than a few minutes. Sure enough, they sneaked away from the conversation to indulge in private. "He's not going to hear anything. Spill."

Katara drunkenly floundered around for an excuse. "But, I…Zuko! He's coming back with our food soon!"

"Sparky has been waiting at the counter for ten minutes and the line hasn't budged. I think you can squeeze in an answer," Toph smirked.

Katara sighed loudly and stared at her drink still on the bar counter. Toph kept pushing the older girl tequila shots because they always made her talk. Besides, if they were going to go out for a night of drinking, Toph should at least get some good blackmail material out of it. Pressing Katara about her fiancé's prowess in bed was definitely a good addition to that long list of juicy information.

"Oh, come on! Aang is right there! We used to date! Isn't that inappropriate?" Katara begged as a last resort that even she realized was a weak excuse.

Aang, sitting behind Toph, chuckled loudly and took another sip of his drink. "Katara, that was like ten years ago. That has no weight anymore." Toph smirked shamelessly. Another good think about going out with friends to drink was that Aang got very mouthy and very brave when he had a lot of alcohol in him. It took a lot of convincing and finagling, but once Aang relented, his wholesome, considerate filter totally went out the window. And it was beautiful.

Katara was running out of outs, and she knew that when it came to Toph and Aang, she was kind of cornered. The girl huffed and crossed her arms. "What do you want to know?"

"Is he the best you've ever had, or is there an ex that did it better?" Toph asked bluntly. "Jet? Haru? I feel like Jet would've have been a total animal."

The older girl rubbed her temples and leaned her elbow on the bar table. "Actually, Jet was kinda quick. So no."

Aang laughed boisterously and slammed a hand on the table. "Well, if there was one thing Jet was good at it, it was that he was all talk."

"He bragged to you about me?" Katara asked horrified.

"All guys do it," Aang shrugged. "But you can always tell when a guy is full of it."

"Shit," Toph chuckled. "My bad. You'd think all that machismo would count for something."

"Not at all," Katara replied without thinking. "It was embarrassing. He couldn't make me finish either." The minute the statement fell out of her mouth, Katara sobered up enough to realize her mistake and covered her mouth just as Aang and Toph nearly fell out of their stools, hanging onto each other for support. Partly because Aang was definitely going to bring that up (because despite how nice Aang was, he never liked Jet), and partly because Katara had never looked that horrified in her life.

Aang recovered first. "Quick _and_ incompetent? Wow. I feel bad for his current girlfriend."

"Seriously," Toph said understandingly. "There's nothing worse than sneaking off into the bathroom and taking care of what your partner should have been doing." Toph leered at her best friend. "I'm assuming that this isn't an issue with Zuko?"

Despite all the protests that she wasn't going to say anything of the sort, the averted eyes and flushed cheeks were enough to confirm to both Aang and Toph that Zuko was at least able to keep his fiancé happy under the sheets. Later, Toph would feel a little guilty for forcing it out of her—Aang would feel a hell of a lot more guilty than she would—but at the moment, the sheer obvious denial was worth plenty of laughs and reminders down the road.

Having had enough of being teased for one night, Katara announced that she was going to wait in line with Zuko and leave the two of them to make fun of her where she couldn't hear. Aang and Toph were still repeating the best bits of the conversation even after Katara left.

Aang ordered another round of shots and couldn't stop himself from asking, "So why is it that you and Katara happened to have such bad picks when it comes to guys?"

Toph gulped back an entire shot, but didn't even feel it go down. She was also feeling warmer. Probably time to slow it down. "I don't know. Guys like to think that the equipment is enough. It's not. Thank god for guys like Zuko, otherwise she'd be a bigger pain in the ass than usual. At least one of us is happy."

Aang raised a brow. "And you're not? I thought that Duke guy you were dating a while ago was amazing. You told me yourself." Unfortunately that was true. Best friends told each other everything, and Aang and Toph got to the point where they detailed their sex lives to the other if it was particularly memorable or particularly revolting. Sokka thought is was kind of weird because they were of opposite genders, but Aang and Toph learned to roll with it. Besides, Sokka was the same guy that said a straight male and a straight female could not remain platonic friends. Which was ridiculous. Toph and Aang were doing just fine.

Totally. Completely. No doubt.

"I said he was an amazing kisser," Toph corrected, returning back to the conversation. "You would think the tongue talent would carry over, but apparently not."

Aang frowned. "Oh come on. You had to have had a boyfriend that's made you orgasm at least once," he stated boldly, drawing courage from his intoxicated state.

Toph shook her head and trace her finger along the rim of her glass. "Nope. No one. For now, I'm the only who can do a decent enough job at it." Toph snapped her mouth shut and blinked. Had she actually said that? To Aang? Surely, they just crossed a line. By the look on Aang's face, he must have noticed it too.

"Wait a minute," Aang said, moving one stool down so that he was sitting directly next to her. "No one?"

Too late to back out of the conversation now. They were already here. Toph shook her head and shrugged in a "what are you gonna do?" kind of way. "Nope. No one."

Aang must not have been able to handle the information, because he frowned and tilted his head on confusion. "That's awful! If you're having sex with someone, they should at least be considerate enough to make sure you're enjoying yourself too."

Toph hummed in thought. "I never though about it being inconsiderate," she thought aloud. "It just…never happened. It was annoying, but…"

"Toph, you're in your twenties," Aang informed her, as if she wasn't completely aware of it, thank you very much.

"Yeah, I know!" Toph exclaimed in annoyance. "Look, it's not even that big of a deal. If that many guys have issues with it, it must be pretty hard to do." Toph wasn't even sure if that was true, but admitting that to herself would make her feel better about the fact that she was apparently missing out on something huge since Aang was making it sound like a travesty. Of course, Aang had the privilege to be shocked about something like that. Not only was he a guy, but he dated a decent amount of girls and probably hooked up with them to boot, having had his share of pleasurable experiences. Not that it was much of a surprise. Aang was attractive enough and had a great enough personality that he could charm anybody.

Toph coughed. You know. Attractive in the completely objective sense of the word. Not that she found Aang attractive. That was just weird. Of course now that the thought was in her head, she couldn't get rid of it. She had always inadvertently admired him in little bursts throughout their friendship. How he always brought homemade soup to her apartment when she was sick. How he'd always pay for her movie tickets whenever they decided to waste an entire Friday afternoon. How nice his biceps looked in tank tops. Or how attractive he looked after coming back from the gym all covered in sweat, his hair mussed up, his muscles still tensing from the workout…

…yeah. Objective observations.

Realizing that her drunken mind was doing a number on her, Toph was about to drop the conversation, but Aang beat her to it by responding to her previous statement. "Actually," Aang began. "It's not all that difficult."

Toph's eyes widened. Did his voice just get huskier, or was that just because of the alcohol he was drinking? Or was she imagining things? Still, she wasn't one to back down. "Oh really?" she asked, sounding completely ignorant.

Aang shook his head simply. "If you bother to know what you're doing, it's simple."

"So you always know what you're doing?" Toph laughed, trying to lighten the mood.

But Aang seemed to be taking this conversation more seriously than she was. "Yeah," he told her, looking directly at her. "I know _exactly_ how to get a rise out of girls. Again. It's simple. Other guys have no excuse."

For some reason, those words punched her straight in a spot that shouldn't have been warming up due to alcohol or words coming out of Aang's mouth. Toph fidgeted imperceptibly, but didn't keep her eyes off of Aang. "And exactly _how_ simple is it?" Ugh! Stupid question! Don't instigate this! He's going to think she's coming on to him!

Aang polished off the shot that he hadn't touched until now and leaned in closer, darting his eyes around to make sure that no one was overhearing. "Well," he began slowly, leaving Toph to hang off of his every word. "It's all about giving the right amount of attention. See, most guys are too eager. They want everything done as quickly as they can to brag about how quickly they made their girlfriends finish. But, the best way to get a girl's toes curling is to leave her wanting more than you'll give her."

Okay. Toph was _definitely_ letting this conversation affect her. "What do you mean by that?"

"You have to make her _want_ you," Aang emphasized. "Skirting around the place she wants you to touch the most, pulling back the moment you feel her muscles tightening, making her desperate and needy…it's when she's at her wits end and about to fall apart that a climax comes easily. You have to be precise and full of intention. Because she can't enjoy the sensations if they're all over the place. From what I've learned, girls love it when you can lavish your complete attention on a specific spot. Keep it consistent, keep it purposeful, show her that you're absolutely enjoying the hell out of yourself…" he trailed off.

_Oh God_, Toph thought in a panic. She had already crossed her legs in the middle of that entire speech. What was happening? Was Aang flirting? Was he drunk? Was this on purpose? She wasn't supposed to be reacting to this, was she? But how could she not? Aang's voice was like warm honey and his words were absolutely hypnotizing.

Stupid girl that she was, she asked, "Is it enjoyable?"

Aang honestly looked like he didn't know what she was talking about. She was suspecting that this was a total act. "Is what enjoyable?"

Suddenly feeling nervous, Toph looked around before she muttered quietly. "Going down on a girl like that."

"No one's ever tried it on you?" Aang asked.

Toph shook her head, too entranced to bother filtering her responses. "Either they never wanted to or couldn't do it right," she admitted. It's why she always steered away from oral sex. It was never stimulating.

Aang scowled. "That's terrible manners," he muttered. "Besides, it's wonderful. Reducing someone you care about to such a state of desperation and raw emotion is amazing to see. Knowing that you're the cause of it just fills you with so much purpose, and you want to make sure that she comes undone. You won't be satisfied until she's satisfied. It makes your anticipation grow, and suddenly the only thing you care about is her getting to that peak."

"You don't mind the taste?" Toph asked carefully, uncrossing and crossing her legs.

"Not at all," Aang responded honestly, his eyes boring into hers and making her entire lower body warm. "In fact, it's rather lovely." Whether this was in her imagination or not, Toph would never know. But she could have _sworn_ that Aang's eyes darted down to the apex of her legs for a split second when he said that.

Toph breathed out, trying to ease the sudden tension in her body. "Oh," was all she could manage.

Aang kept his eyes on her for a little bit longer. But then he leaned away from her and sat properly in his stool again. "Yup," he replied simply. "Easy as pie."

Toph looked a little skeptical. "I'm sure it's not. You probably just really know what you're doing," she guessed, trying to calm her beating heart.

Aang shrugged with a brow raised. "Then you should probably get someone who knows what they're doing."

There was no way to know how Toph was supposed to take that, but she definitely took it in a way that made her want to bite her lip and rethink everything she had ever thought about her best friend. Damn it. Drunk Aang was not good for her. Drunk Aang was very very very _bad_ for her. If Drunk Aang was this suggestive and this attractive and this sensual and this…

…oh God, what was _happening?_

The spell was broken when Katara and Zuko returned with their food. Aang greeted the two of them jovially with his same boyish, innocent smile, giving no indication that he had just left Toph a frustrated bundle of nerves without even laying a finger on her.

She blew her bangs out of her eyes and bit her lip in annoyance. Best friends didn't normally do this to you. _Aang_ didn't normally do this to her.

Toph felt like crying. This definitely was _not_ good.

**OOO**

_Lol. I'm awful._


	10. Freedom

**OOO**

_Day 10: _Freedom

…

_Canon Universe_

**OOO**

The moon had already risen and was resting at the top of the sky, and Aang was thankful that the sky was clear tonight. It was always hard to steer Appa through cloudy weather, especially at night. He quietly told Appa that they'd fly for only half an hour more before they landed and rested for the night. He wanted to make sure that he left enough distance between the Bei Fong estate and them before Toph's parents noticed that Toph had actually run away and hadn't made peace with her family.

At first, he thought that they had finally taken the chance to understand her and let her go on to see the world. For a while, she looked incredibly happy, and even fell into a peaceful sleep with a small smile on her face as the group flew on to their next destination. But as the Water Tribe siblings slept and Aang began to feel his own lids begin to droop, he looked back and saw that Toph was wide awake, staring sightlessly up at the sky with a passive look on her face that made Aang think that not everything was the way it should have been. After all, if her parents had really allowed her to come with them, why did Toph leave so suddenly in secret in the middle of the night?

Figuring that the sky was clear enough that Aang could leave Appa to do the navigating for now, Aang decided to crawl off of Appa's head and over to the saddle where the tiny girl was sprawled. She didn't look upset, elated, or even sad. She looked…contemplative. And Aang wasn't sure how to take that.

Aang sat cross-legged next to Toph. "So…you're positive about the fact that we're even right?"

Toph chuckled. "Yeah, I think so. I hit you hard enough for you to feel bad about cheating."

"It wasn't cheating," Aang defended. "It was a reflex."

"Whatever soothes your guilty conscience."

Strange. Toph seemed in good enough spirits. Of course, if you counted her making fun of him being in good spirits. He wasn't really used to this sarcastic, frank nature—not even Sokka was this bad—but this was definitely something he was going to have to get used to if this young girl was going to be his Earthbending master. But there was still something off about her. He might not have known her too well at this point, but he could easily recognize tension and unsettlement no matter who it was.

Aang decided to just go for it. "I know you ran away," he blurted out. "Your parents didn't let you go."

Toph's placid face faltered slightly. A frown was pulling at her features and she turned her head away from his voice. "Does it matter? You have a teacher and I got away. Everyone wins."

Aang stared down at his hands in his lap and bit his lip. "But you're upset."

"I'm perfectly fine," Toph insisted.

Aang pulled his knees up to his chest and sighed. Somehow, he didn't think that communicating with Toph was ever going to be easy. "I know you say that. But…I just wanted to…thank you. For agreeing to come with us. I know how hard it is leaving a family behind. And you were willing. So…thanks," he mumbled.

Aang had never met someone who was blind before. It was interesting to watch Toph's eyes react to what he said. She wasn't focusing on anything, but her eyes were still capable of showing shock and confusion. It was amazing to watch. Thank goodness she couldn't see him staring, otherwise he was sure he wouldn't be able to get away with this kind of observation.

"You don't need to thank me," Toph replied. "I mean…I left on my own. I wanted to get my freedom back and this was the best way to do it and help you."

Aang averted his eyes from Toph and looked out at the mountainside just outside of Gaoling. Perhaps they could find a place on a mountain ridge to set up camp for the night. The lonely night reminded him of a time that didn't feel like very long ago, but had actually been buried in a past he couldn't have back. "Well. Take it from someone who knows a lot about running away. Sometimes, you sacrifice more than you meant to in order to get your freedom. So…I figured I should at least show you that I'm grateful for the sacrifice."

The two of them said nothing. Aang darted his back down at Toph who seemed to be contemplative, and he couldn't help but wonder what she was thinking. Surely she had to realize that cutting ties cost a lot. Look what running away on that stormy night cost him and Appa? Sometimes, Aang wondered if it was even worth it—the momentary fresh breath of freedom. Look at the mess he caused.

Thinking that Toph wasn't going to respond to him any longer, Aang was about to climb back and take up Appa's reigns again. But Toph sat up suddenly and grabbed a hold of Aang's wrist, keeping him from going anywhere. Aang waited in confusion for Toph to say something, wondering if he had offended her.

Her face turned towards his, her gaze brushing over the top of his left ear. "It doesn't do you any good to regret leaving things behind. But, it's good to appreciate everything you've gained now that you grabbed the freedom you deserve. It's how I see it anyway."

Toph gave the tiniest evidence of what could have maybe been a smile before she turned back to face the mountainside, her arms hanging off of the edge of the saddle. Aang stood there, staring at her in wonder, in amazement that a girl that he barely knew could understand even a fraction of the doubts he always carried with him.

Aang grinned and climbed back over to Appa's head and started looking for a place for them to camp. He couldn't explain why, but he had a good feeling about this girl.


	11. Balance

**OOO**

_Day 11: _Balance

…

_Legend of Korra Universe _

**OOO**

"You owe me a gold piece, Miss Chief of Police."

"Sure. Waltz into my office. It's not like I ever told you to _knock first!_"

"Well, considering that you told me to rush over with any news on those smugglers that you spotted yesterday, I would have thought you'd be grateful for my presence."

"Yeah, well, when you've been running around all day, sometimes you get migraines. And sometimes you want to lock yourself up in your office where it's nice and quiet and get a good nap in."

"The years are catching up to you, eh?"

"Speak for yourself. Who's the one that still gives you rock massages when your back gets thrown out, old man?"

"Alright, alright. Let it go. Avatar work is just as exhausting."

"I guess it's too much to hope for all that young virility to carry over into your forties."

"I'm afraid it is."

"…so about this money that I supposedly owe you?"

"Ah! Well, I thought you'd like to know that your daughter officially agreed to accompany my son on a date."

"…you're kidding."

"You'd know if I was lying."

"Just to be clear. Sharing a smile and brushing hands doesn't count as dating. I don't want your romanticized head to get the two confused, as you are prone to do."

"…I am not twelve."

"Maybe not, but you are no less hopeful and gullible when it comes to matters of the heart."

"Well, I assume that when Tenzin comes home ready to take his—and I quote—"girlfriend" out to lunch this afternoon, I equate that as dating."

"…wait. Lin is going out to lunch with Tenzin? She said she was going to be out practicing today."

"Aw, isn't that precious. Her first lie about her boyfriend."

"Alright. No. There was no way that you predicted the two of them would start dating. You did some meddling so that you could prove me wrong."

"I did no such thing! You can't tell me that you didn't think Lin was interested in Tenzin."

"Of course I noticed that. I pay attention to my daughter. What I didn't expect was your son to actually have the balls to ask her out. You helped him."

"I swear to you, Toph. I didn't. It was all him. He was a nervous wreck right before he did it, not that I think about it, but he did it."

"…huh…"

"Right?"

"…does this make us in-laws now?"

"They're not married, Toph."

"It feels like it."

"It's just a date. They're getting old enough for it. Sixteen is plenty old enough for them to start."

"Twinkles Toes, she was hanging off of my back yesterday, kicking around pebbles because she couldn't quite bend yet. Now I wake up and she's _dating_."

"…I guess you're right."

"Spirits, we're getting old."

"You've only just realized that?"

"Actually? Yeah. I was kinda hoping I could juggle my youth and be an adult at the same time if that makes sense."

"Katara was making fun of me for that the other day. I was trying to show Tenzin an air scooter the other day."

"…you fell on your ass, didn't you?"

"…I don't want to talk about it."

"You don't have to. You're embarrassment is explanation enough."

"… … you're right, though. Sometimes, I still think that I can hop on Appa and fly off to wherever I want. But I can't do that anymore. I have to balance a family now. As if my job wasn't enough stress already."

"Yeah. Wake up call, huh?"

"You're telling me."

"Not that you have anything to worry about. From what I can tell, you're doing a decent enough job of it as it is. Nothing's exploded yet, so that's good. And all of your kids are well adjusted...I mean most of them."

"Thanks, Toph. You always know what to say."

"No problem."

"Well, I'm pleasantly impressed with you. Chief of Police and a wonderful daughter to boot. My son is a lucky kid."

"Yeah, well. I try. It could've been a lot worse, huh?"

"Definitely."

"…"

"…you still owe me that gold piece though. I totally won that bet."

"You _cheated!_"

"No, I didn't!"

"You knew something you slimy little sneak. You always do!"

"You're just mad that I won!"

"Of course I'm mad. I'm not giving you crap."

"No you don't! I won fair and square. Payment. Now."

"In your dreams."


End file.
